


Wrong Thing, Right Reason

by shipskicksandgiggles



Series: tumblr prompts [41]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Arrested Mayday Parker, Established Relationship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abelism, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Parent Harley Keener, Parent Peter Parker, Parenthood, Teenage Rebellion, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:55:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29169948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shipskicksandgiggles/pseuds/shipskicksandgiggles
Summary: Peter Parker gets a call about his daughter in the middle of the workday. She won't talk to him about it, but she might talk to her other dad given the right approach
Relationships: Harley Keener & May "Mayday" Parker, Harley Keener/Peter Parker, May "Mayday" Parker & Peter Parker
Series: tumblr prompts [41]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1566982
Comments: 4
Kudos: 99





	Wrong Thing, Right Reason

**Author's Note:**

> this was an adventure in writing new characters I will admit, but I'm not mad about it so-  
> prompt: "I don't want to talk about it"

“Go for Parker.”

He listened to the voice on the other end of the line for a moment before sighing. “No, no, I understand. I’ll be right down. Do you know what-”

There was a pause after he was interrupted. He frowned. “Of course. I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

He let the phone clatter onto his desk as he rested his head in his hands. Realistically, he knew he could just work from home for the rest of the day, but it still meant pausing his work flow. He saved his work and clocked out at the front desk. This wasn’t going to be fun. 

~~~

“Mayday-”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have gotten _arrested,_ Mayday.”

“It wasn’t my fault!”

Peter sighed deeply as he got into the car. “Really? I didn’t see anyone else in that holding cell.” 

She turned towards the window and started ignoring him. Why he decided to have kids was beyond him. 

“Fine, we can talk about this later, but make no mistake, we _are_ going to be having a conversation about this.”

The rest of the car ride home was quiet. She gave no indication that she heard him. 

As soon as he pulled into the driveway, she was already getting out of the door. He walked into the house just in time to hear her bedroom door slam. 

It was 3:30 p.m., so he’d have enough time to finish the quarterly report before Harley got home. His home computer booted up slowly, and he got to work the second the page loaded. 

He hit save when the garage door opened. 

“Hey honey!” he called when he walked in the door. “How was your day?”

Peter walked out of their office and into his husband’s waiting arms. “Could’ve been better.” He glanced towards Mayday’s still closed door. “We need to talk.”

Harley stepped back to look him in the face. “Everything okay?”

“Just--” he tilted his head to look up at the ceiling- “get in here.” He pulled him into the office and closed the door behind him. 

“Did I forget about something?” Harley asked. 

“Mayday got arrested.”

He stopped. “Mayday what?”

“She got arrested.”

Peter grabbed a chair. Harley looked like he was about to fall over. 

“Did she tell you why?”

“I got a call from the police station that she assaulted someone. We raised her better than this, Harley.”

“We also raised a kid who wouldn’t do things without reason. What did she tell you?”

He shook his head. “She wouldn’t talk to me on the way home. What the hell do we do here?”

Harley considered the question with a sigh. “I’ll see if I can get her to open up. You mind starting dinner without me?”

“Course not.”

He pulled Peter down into his lap to give him a kiss. “Love you.”

“Love you too. Now you need to go be a parent.”

“Not before I need to be your husband, I don’t.”

Peter rested his head on Harley’s shoulder. “Five minutes.”

“Five minutes,” Harley confirmed. “Now other than the kid getting arrested, how was your day?”

~~~

Ten minutes later, Harley knocked on his daughter’s door. 

“Go away,” came the muffled reply. 

“C’mon, kid. You’re not even going to come out and tell your dear old dad hi?”

The door opened slowly, and she peaked around the corner. “Papa?”

“Yeah. Can I come in?”

She opened the door a little further to let him in and then went back to sit on her bed. “I still don’t want to talk about it.”

“I figured. How about I talk instead?”

“About what?”

“About the time your dad got arrested.”

She always had Peter’s smile. “Dad got arrested?”

“More than once,” he laughed. “A week after I met him, I had to drive down to Jersey with your _Nonno_ to pick him up.”

“He got arrested in _Jersey?”_

“Between you and me, I think he’s still a little sore about that one.” Peter had been running from the cops in Queens before somehow ending up in Hoboken. No one could quiet piece together the details exactly how or why. 

She laughed lightly, but didn’t say anything for a few minutes. 

“He deserved it.”

Harley started. “Who?”

“The guy I punched.”

He knew there must have been a reason. “Did he try to grab you?” The dangers of kidnapping were all too real, so he and Peter had let her beat them up in the name of self defense training more than once. The teenager could pack a real punch. 

“No,” she shook her head. “I was just getting a cup of coffee from that place I like, you know?” 

He did. Real nice staff, good atmosphere, even better coffee, and he wouldn’t tell her if he went without her unless he brought her her usual. He liked being alive, and coffee was serious business. 

“Kio was working today. The guy in line in front of me started yelling at him about his prosthetic and the rainbow pin on his lanyard. He was getting downright nasty about it too. The second he started calling him slurs, I tapped him on the shoulder and told him to go to a different coffee shop if he was unhappy.” 

“And?”

“And 30 seconds later I tossed him out the front door myself!”

He couldn’t laugh. That would be bad parenting. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“I mean, you did the wrong thing for the right reason. Don’t do it again, but I’m proud of you.”

“Is dad pissed at me?”

“I think he’s confused. You know he loves you and he wants to protect you from all the bad things in the world. But you’re also a little too much like him sometimes, and that scares him. Once you tell him-” she tried to protest- “and you _will_ tell him, he’ll understand.”

“Promise?” 

“Pinky promise.” He held out his finger. “Are you gonna be okay?”

She nodded. 

“Would a hug make it better.”

Another nod. 

He pulled her in. “I love you, Jitterbug.”

“I love you too, papa.” Her response was quiet, but he smiled anyways. 

~~~

Harley led her out into the dining room a few minutes later. 

“Hey!” Peter turned to look at them from where he was setting the table. “Are we okay?” he asked Mayday

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”

He brushed it off. “Probably. Do we need to ground you?” He looked up at his husband who shook his head subtly. 

Her eyes widened, and she quickly recounted the same story she told Harley. “It’s not like I’d just hurt someone for no reason!”

Peter smiled. “I know. You did a good thing.”

“You’re not mad?”

“You defended someone, Maze. I’d be a bad person and an even worse parent if I were pissed about something like that.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh okay.”

“Great! Now go get washed up for dinner please.”

Harley kissed him on the cheek as she left. “We did good.”

“Of course we did, we’re the best. How’d you get her to open up?”

“Hoboken.”

Peter whirled on him. “We agreed to never speak of that ever again.”

He shrugged. “I was vague about it. Didn’t even tell her the details that I _do_ know. Plus I needed an act of good faith to get her talking.”

“You’re lucky we’re on the same team here.”

“I know, dear.”

“Next time you decide to use embarrassing stories of me when I was her age, ask me first.”

“Yes, dear.”

Just then, they heard a groan from the kitchen. “Dad!” Mayday yelled. 

“What’s up kid?” Peter asked.

“Did you make asparagus?”

His body shook with silent laughter. “Yes, and your punishment is that you actually have to eat it instead of trying to push it onto our plates while we’re not looking.”

They heard an indignant noise. 

Harley burst out laughing. “Don’t let the cops catch you next time then!”

Peter shook his head. “Teenagers.”

**Author's Note:**

> I mean if you want to talk you can find me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/playboyphilanthro-pissed)


End file.
